Fraser Health is a health authority, one of five, in British Columbia. Working with the Ministry of Health, they’re responsible for the delivery of hospital and community-based health services to over 1.8 million people in 20 diverse communities.
In response to the outbreak of 2020, Fraser Health worked hard at maintaining all health service levels, ensuring that they were consistently reviewing plans and following guidelines. Furthermore, the health authority expanded virtual health care services for safer care. These modern implementations had set a benchmark for the future of integrated care.
The CEO of Fraser Health, Victoria Lee, states, “Stay committed for our communities and local businesses. We have bent the curve before and together we can do it again,” in the company’s press release. To further explore Victoria’s roles, we observe this interview with BC business.
Who is Victoria Lee?
Victoria Lee joined Fraser Health in 2010, and today, she is the CEO of the health authority. She started her career at Fraser Health as a medical health authority, now bringing to the table her clinical background and vocational perspective as CEO. Her empathy will be helpful in this new senior role.
She notes a challenge in the role is adhering to a very diverse group, including 1.8 million people across 20 communities, and is quickly growing. Victoria states,
“There are a lot of opportunities for work that’s very specific to local content, so being able to balance all of that as well as ensuring we’re delivering on our vision and our mandate has been a challenge.”
With challenges come opportunities as Victoria sees it. Her vision for Fraser Health is creativity that will empower people instead of victimizing them. The health care industry is known to be stagnant. Victoria jokes that many of the students who enter their first healthcare role are shocked to see fax machines and pagers still used. While Fraser’s CEO jokes about the use of fax machines and pagers, it is a concern for data breaches.
Other opportunities include the use of artificial intelligence (AI), automation, patient portals, patient engagements, and more for an integrated care model. Victoria Lee notes that “We need to be taking more risks in our help here. And not in a way that’s going to be a risk to patient care; I’m talking more about policies, process, infrastructure, and technologies.”
